Egon Erwin Kisch, the Raging Reporter: A Bio-anthology

Egon Erwin Kisch · Harold B. Segel

Jan 1997 · Purdue University Press

About this ebook

Egon Erwin Kisch (1885-1948) is widely regarded as one of the most outstanding journalists of the twentieth century. He is also credited with virtually defining reportage as a form of literary art in which accuracy of observation and fidelity to facts combine with creative narrative. Born in Prague under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kisch began his career as a crime reporter for local newspapers. He saw combat in Serbia as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I, led an abortive left-wing coup d'etat in Vienna in 1918, and became famous in the German-speaking world as der rasende Reporter (the raging reporter) when he exposed the attempted cover-up of a case of treason in high places that rocked the Habsburg Empire on the eve of World War I. He visited North Africa, the Soviet Union, Central Asia, Australia, China, and the United States, where he traveled from one coast to the other as an ordinary seaman, made friends with Charlie Chaplin and Upton Sinclair, and commented with wit and irony on American life.

About the author

Harold B. Segel is a native of Boston. He graduated from Boston College with a degree in modern languages and Harvard University with a Ph. D. in Slavic languages and literatures. He began his teaching career at the University of Florida in Gainesville and in 1959 he joined the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Columbia University. At Columbia, he held appointments in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Arts, the School of International and Public Affairs, and the School of General Studies. Professor Segel has also held visiting professorships at Indiana University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stockholm University in Sweden and is the author of more than a dozen books. A recipient of numerous fellowships, grants, and awards, he was twice decorated in 1975 by the Polish government for contributions on behalf of Polish culture, first at the Ministry of Culture in Warsaw and again at the Polish Consulate in New York..